Is there a formula for estimating the weight of lambs, like the pig one? If not, how do you weigh yours?

-- Carol Koller (ckoller@netsync.net), October 10, 2001

Answers

Gee, I just bring my bathroom scale out, hold the lamb and get on. Most scales go up to 250 pounds.Subtract your weight. I also have a hanging scale with a sling I got through Nasco Catalogue that goes to 60 lbs.Once they get on creep feed they gain an average of 3/4 to a pound a day. Kate

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), October 10, 2001.

Yep, same as for beef cattle. If the sheep are unshorn, be sure to part or compress the wool to ensure an accurate heart girth measurement.

Measure, in inches, the circumference (heart girth) from a point slightly behind the shoulder blade, then down over the foreribs and under the body, behind the elbow.

Measure the length of the body from the point of the shoulder to the point of the rump (pinbone).

The formula:

Heart girth x heart girth x body length. Divide by 300 = weight in pounds.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), October 11, 2001.

Thanks Rogo, that's what I needed.

-- Carol Koller (ckoller@netsync.net), October 11, 2001.

I'd go with Kate. That is, I'd get Kate to pick up a lamb and weigh the combination, then do the arithmetic. Wouldn't work for me - asking too much of any bathroom scale I've ever met to accomodate me and a sheep all at once. I really can't see getting accurate girth measurements of a sheep when there's wool in the way, and I know sheep fairly well.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 11, 2001.